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Lenin-8
General Information Originally, Lenin-8 was written off as a “deadly setting” – probes sent in never returned. Then a freelance world-jumper hopping at random entered and came back. Others went in and explored. It only took a few weeks to determine why conveyors didn’t return. It seems that in Lenin-8’s reality, the physics that would normally produce a sub-quantum conveyor field instead produce an effect that allows faster-than-light travel! So every time a conveyor tried to leave, it zoomed off into space. The potentials of this have project planners at Infinity drooling. For the present, only world-jumpers can access Lenin-8. History Cliohistorians think that the history of Lenin-8 diverged sometime in the 1930’s, but aren’t sure. The only evidence of the change is the effect – the Soviet bureaucracy was filled with True Believers who actually tried to live up to the ideals of Communism. Thus efforts to build personal empires by power-seekers and corrupt officials were hamstrung and thwarted, generals were not killed because they were too competent, the Black Market was gutted, and for at least two generations the Welfare of the People was more important than political ideology or loyalty to powerful figures. This sincerity frustrated Stalin, who discovered that without the bureaucracy he was little more than a warlord. So the Black Constellation was reduced in size, mass purges were all but nonexistent, and the average Soviet citizen had more to eat. The Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invaders was even more successful with a properly-led Red Army – the Wehrmacht never even made it to Stalingrad and were expelled from Soviet territory in less than a year. The USSR then bowed out of the war and concentrated on rebuilding. World War II ended on schedule, but without occupying Soviet Armies and higher casualties by Allied troops. After World War II ended, the US funded the Marshall Plan then pulled out of Europe. Since the Marshall Plan was now spread over all of Europe, the economies and societies were shaky. The better-funded, less militaristic, and more sincere USSR aided the other nations in the spirit of the Brotherhood of Workers. This made Communism very popular in Europe and by the mid-1950’s freely-elected Communist governments were proliferating. This alarmed the US and British governments (who couldn’t see the difference between Russia’s semi-socialism and Mao’s hard-line ideology) and the Cold War was on. Communism spread worldwide. Non-Communist nations were cut out of lucrative trade with the Red Sphere, so standards of living worldwide were lower than for the same period in Homeline’s history. There seemed to be hopes of a detente in the 1970’s, but this was cut short by the Sino-Soviet war. The two Communist Powers fought over ideology, ending with the Soviet conquest of East Asia. The democracies thought that Russia would be a long time assimilating China. They were wrong and Russia forged ahead in it’s industrialization plans with hundreds of millions of new worker comrades. In 1996, Dr. Paul Van Zandt and his colleague Oliver Fenton Arnold had a lab accident. In Homeline, Dr Arnold died and Van Zandt completed the parachronic drive in 1997. In Lenin-8 , Van Zandt was killed and Dr Arnold completed the stardrive in 2001. Exploration of the galaxy began, and the first extrasolar colonies were begun by 2004. In 2013, an explorer discovered an extrasolar planet with huge deposits of uranium, and a “gold rush” – followed by a colony rush – was on. Communist influence on Earth kept growing. The usual US response of militaristic threatening didn’t stop nation after nation from freely electing Communist governments. In 2000, the last three democracies – the US, Canada, and Mexico – merged into the North American League. But political infighting and embargo by the rest of the world led to a gradual decline. In 2016, the last diehard believers in Democracy left en masse for the colony planet Newhope. The last democracy fell without a shot being fired. However, the ideology of communism was built on two pillars – class struggle and industrialization. With no capitalist class to struggle against, ideological squabbles began to emerge. The idealism of the 1950’s had calcified and during the Sino-Soviet War had hardened into dogma. The newer and more idealistic communist nations were arguing constantly with the older inflexible ones. Much of this squabbling took on a dangerous air as countries armed themselves to fight against their “counter-revolutionary” neighbors. And the massive industrialization had begun to take it’s toll as an ecological catastrophe similar to Lenin-2 began. The colonies didn’t care – they were all busy and had little time to worry about Earth. The infighting and collapsing ecology reached a head in 2020 when the Premier of the USSR, an able young man named Boris Antonovich Koslov, implemented a radical plan to end the fighting and repair the world. He proclaimed himself Boris I, King of Earth, and claimed total authority. And to make the point stick, he launched nuclear strikes against the nations that were fighting wars. Within a year, Earth fell in line. In the seven years since, King Boris has implemented a disarmament and huge ecological reclamation projects. There is a severe labor shortage as all the new industries that were created for the reclamation can’t get enough workers. The economy is thriving and standards of living are climbing to new highs. King Boris’ reforms included a major social restructuring. There is a noble class with actual power and authority to make local decisions. The only requirement is control of resources and the approval of the king, so capitalism is back in full force. But there is a catch – civil rights are very strongly protected by the Crown. To become a noble means relinquishing those civil rights. Thus, while commoners are protected by law, any noble can be tortured or killed on the King’s whim. Inheritance of noble properties and titles is the sole prerogative of the King. So the nobles are all talented businessmen who can get things done, but if they tick off the Crown too much, they can lose everything in a heartbeat – including their lives. This bizarre hybrid system appears to be working as of local present 2027. Prequel Myth Parallel Lenin-8 would appear to be yet another odd parallel except for one detail; all of this was told in the novel Imperial Stars by E.E. “Doc” Smith and Stephen Gould, published on Homeline in 1976. This would make Lenin-8 a myth parallel. Except that ten books in the “Family d’Alembert” series all take place in the 25th century; the rise of King Boris was background material in the first chapter. If the rest of the stories take place, then cliohistorians have a unique opportunity to study a world where they already know the result of history for centuries to come. This has severely upset everyone who believes in free will. Since the events of the 25th century in Lenin-8 are available in libraries and bookstores on Homeline, does that mean that the inhabitants of Lenin-8 are without free will? Could history be changed there by a determined fan? Or would history in Lenin-8 inexorably count down to the events in the novels no matter what? Outtime Involvement Infinity has classed Lenin-8 as Z1. Since the standard conveyor design doesn’t work as expected there, this doesn’t need too much enforcement. It’s coordinates are still listed as a “deadly setting” in public records. Clandestine studies of the ecological cleanup projects are under way. Many researchers are anxious to explore this reality with conveyors – which in Lenin-8 are starships. The projects call for traveling to other star systems in Lenin-8’s universe then using world-jumpers to re-enter Homeline’s universe. But the project’s theoretical unknowns are outweighed by the practical considerations. Namely that Lenin-8 is a high-tech world with a huge array of ecological observation satellites in orbit and a space guard. No Homeline conveyor / starship could launch from anywhere in Earth’s solar system without being detected. There is no known Cabal involvement on this timeline – yet. But the “Family d’Alembert” books hint at paranormal powers that could be interpreted as ki-powers, psionics, or even divine intervention. So they might show up. Centrum hasn't found Lenin-8 yet. The democracies managed to keep a technological edge right up to their collapse, so while the official language is Russian, the technical language of Lenin-8 is English. With a highly-centralized and very rough meritocratic system already in place, Centrum might be interested. Whether or not they would see it as worth the effort is debatable Note This was originally presented as Lenin-7 but since there is already a Lenin-7 it has been renamed Lenin-8. Category:Fan Settings Category:Reality Classification Category:Quantum 7 Category:Myth Parallels Category:No Mana